Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's insistence that major legislation reach the House floor only if it appears to be backed by a "majority of the majority" could throw a high hurdle in front of efforts to reach a House-Senate compromise on immigration later this year, lawmakers said. Hastert (R-Ill.) has invoked the policy in blocking bills that appeared likely to win approval from more than half of the House's 435 members but less than half of its 231 Republicans.

Some Republicans, rightly disgusted by Bush and also by the Senate Republicans, say it is not worth bothering to vote in the fall 2006 elections. But if Democrats had control of the House right now the Senate Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA, S.2611) would be sailing toward Bush's signature. CIRA would bring somewhere between 66 and 93 million immigrants into the United States in the next 20 years. Republican control of the House may be the only thing that stops that bill. If the Democrats win control of the House in November 2006 then in 2007 CIRA will come up again and pass both houses of Congress.

A senior Bush adviser noted that House conservatives are themselves divided, pointing to Thursday's trip to Arizona as an illustration. Aboard Air Force One, conservative Reps. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and John Shadegg (Ariz.) suggested to Bush that they are prepared to back a plan that would offer many illegal immigrants a new route to citizenship, according to the official. But Bush's biggest obstacle is the House GOP leadership team, including Majority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) and Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.), who are cool to the Bush plan. "The ice ain't going to break overnight, we know," the Bush adviser said.

Send those snail mails, emails, and faxes. Call up your Congressional representative's offices and make your views known on immigration.